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Topic Review (Newest First)

07-16-2003 09:33 AM

Dble Haul

Fishhawk, I have fished the Housatonic in the fall and the BWO hatch was great. There were plenty of nice fiesty browns to go around, and the water temp had cooled to the point that they could really show off when hooked. Let's try to meet this fall sometime (Adrian, you in?).

The life that this thread has taken only proves the original point: that every species is unique, and as Juro says the lucky angler experiences them all for what they are.

07-16-2003 06:32 AM

juro

Quote:

Originally posted by Dble Haul And what if smallies grew to 18 pounds?

It's all relative, after all.

True but they'd have to grow to 42 pounds to keep up

Every fish has it's endearing qualities, the lucky angler experiences them all!

07-16-2003 06:06 AM

FishHawk

Mark if you haven't been to the Missouri in Montana and caught a Fall Rainbow you should try it. They are a great fighter. I sure miss trout fishing. Now that I'm focused on the Salt I've missed some great fresh water fishing. Will have to get to the Farmington soon. You should join me this Fall on the Hoosi, great BWO hatch. I'm sure that you have fished the Hoosie. Maybe Adrian can join us and will have a mini Fall Hoosie Clave .
FishHawk

I too have been lucky enough to experience the Smallie + Trout days on the same rod on the Housie. I've often wondered about the relative fighting merits of the two species and really can't make my mind up. Just when you think one has the upper hand, the other comes along and proves you wrong!

Pound for pound the hardest, meanest, ornery scrapper I ever encountered is a mangrove snapper. I swear they have a full vocabulary of cuss words that they spit at you when hooked. I wish they grew to 30lb

07-14-2003 09:04 AM

Dble Haul

Bob, I'm glad that you're making light of this. That was just the purpose of my post too.....that opinions can turn into arguements, and there's really more important things to worry about.

BTW, agree with you about the carp's fighting ability. It's a great fish.

07-13-2003 10:30 AM

BobK

Not hardly....

No, I won't fire away - I'm always concerned that these things always lead to a pi$$ing contest, without logic, and with lots of opinions.

In fact, I agree with your statements, and I agree with your thinking - a lot of it "depends on water conditions" (temp, amount of dissolved oxygen, etc.) of how ANY species "fights".

BTW, Carp are very scrappy, tough fighting fish, too - especially when caught on the fly in good streams - but horror of horrors, don't tell any purists I said that!

BobK

07-13-2003 10:19 AM

Dble Haul

sjs- There's no need to apologize, you're just expressing an opinion, and it's one that for the most part I agree with. There's a reason that the smallmouth has been described as "pound for pound, the gamest fish that swims". Fire away, Bob.

However, I think that a fish's vigor is closely related to water temperature. On this particular evening, the water was right in the comfort zone of the bass and a bit on the warm side for the rainbows, so the bass did indeed fight harder. But had the water been much cooler, I'm sure there's a very good chance that the trout would have fought harder than the bass.

It's an interesting river...in the spring, there's the trout while the water is cool, then summer there's primarily bass being caught during the warmer waters, and then in the fall as temps cool the trout turn on again and the bass still actively feed in preparation for winter.

07-12-2003 03:17 PM

sjs

Yeah, you're right about that; must have lost my head there for a moment.

07-12-2003 02:07 PM

BobK

Beware of arguments!!!

Any time you try to claim fish X is a better fighter than fish Y, you're treading on dangerous ground. Sure to start opinions being thrown around, and even gunfights!

Myself, I enjoy catching ALL species of fish - all offer their own rewards with respect to fighting ability, surroundings and natural appearance. Love 'em all! And they all are fun to catch!

BobK

07-12-2003 09:55 AM

sjs

I've never had the opportunity to catch both smallmouth and trout on the same day with the same rod. With all due respect to our beloved trout, I always suspected smallmouth fight more, pound for pound. Hard to tell though since the smallies I catch are usually much larger than the trout I catch. Was it your experience that the smallmouth were a little more vigorous?

07-11-2003 09:44 PM

Dble Haul

At last, some trout fishing

I finally did some trout fishing this evening....owning the boat has kept me away from wade fishing so far this season. The sky was grey and water temps were still in the low 60s.

Three smallmouth took my beadhead caddis pupae imitations, and I could have sworn that one of them was an 18" trout. It came to hand and may have been 11" long....one of the hardest fighting smallies for its size that I've caught in a while.

Towards the end of the evening I finally hung a rainbow on a conehead streamer swung through a deeper hole. It felt good.

Not much going on in the way of insects coming off of the water, hence my nymphing and swinging streamers. Maybe I won't wait until next season to do this again.